That’s the headline written and assumed all too often. With George Bush, his Treasury Secretary and the heads of Lehman Brothers all holding MBAs is it any wonder?

Granted, the MBA’s graduating now are taught ethics, CSR and Harvard’s ‘Leadership and Corporate Accountability’ course, but they didn’t really exist in the 60s and 70s when Bush et al attended business school.

Tom Peters has been very vocal about his embarrassment and doubt over capitalism, and its white collar crimes, but is it anywhere near fair to blame a business course for the developed world’s economic woe?

Can a business course – expensive or cheap, long or short – truly teach you to be ethical? Not just to the realisation of what it is, but to have you really adopt the learning?

While I doubt MBAs turn saints into sinners at Harvard or elsewhere, I’m not sure it could turn a sinner into a saint either.

Photo credit: bdwaydiva1